Eternal Life

I’ve just returned from a week-long Bible School, a retreat with classes and activities for all ages, focused on the Bible. This posting is the result of a point emphasized in one of the classes. (Thank you, brother!)

His point was this: When we read of “eternal life” in the Bible, the term is not (at least not always) equal to “everlasting life” or “immortality”.

Now, there’s clearly a future sense involved—eternal life is something faithful believers are promised to “inherit”, a hope described clearly in the future tense. (e.g. Mark 10:30, Galatians 6:8, Titus 1:2)

But the teacher’s point was that there’s also, very clearly, use of the term in a present sense. This is especially evident in John’s writings, but also in Paul’s sometimes. Here are a few examples (with emphasis added):

Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life; whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him. (John 3:36)

Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life. He does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life. (John 5:24)

Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes has eternal life. (John 6:47)

And this is the testimony, that God gave us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. (1 John 5:11)

Fight the good fight of the faith. Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called and about which you made the good confession in the presence of many witnesses. (1 Timothy 6:12)

Having now paid attention to the clear present tense application, we might want to re-think our understanding of some other passages:

Whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” (John 4:14)

And this is eternal life, that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent. (John 17:3)

But I received mercy for this reason, that in me, as the foremost, Jesus Christ might display his perfect patience as an example to those who were to believe in him for eternal life. (1 Timothy 1:16)

Once we have our ears tuned to it, we can hear in passages like these that “eternal life” can have a broader application than we might have previously thought.

But how does this make sense? We don’t literally have eternal life now, do we? Let’s consider. Who has eternal life now? Paul mentions to Timothy that God alone has immortality, meaning has it inherently. (1 Timothy 6:16) What’s going on is that God, working through Jesus Christ, is connecting us to His own eternal life! He’s doing the connecting now, and He intends that our lives now reflect the connection to the eternal. And ultimately, yes, we will also be made immortal. That’s what God is after—sharing His eternal life with us, because He loves us.

Try this. When you encounter “eternal life” in scripture, read is as “the eternal life”. That is, God’s life—as opposed to “mortal life” or “perishing life”. Whoever believes has the eternal life. This is the eternal life, to know God and Jesus. Paul uses it in exactly this way, writing, “Take hold of the eternal life.” You can do the same with all these passages, and many more besides.

We’ve been given by our loving heavenly Father, a portion of His own life—the life of the Eternal. Not the endless part of it, yet. But we have been called to, promised, and actually linked with the divine life. God’s intention is that we live the eternal life now, as well as forever.

Love, Paul